Setting Sail

If you're on the Hudson River waterfront tomorrow, be sure to catch a glimpse of something few people of our generation have seen.

You'll be watching the USS Intrepid floating down the Hudson River to dry dock in New Jersey and a temporary home on Staten Island, where it will call home for the next 18 months while it, and Pier 86, are refurbished. Workers have been prepping the ship for being pulled out of its mooring alongside Pier 86, but the heavy lifting will come from a Staten Island tugboat, which will pull the ship out into the channel where four other tugs will direct the Intrepid to its dry dock.

The Intrepid is going to be in dry dock in Bayonne, New Jersey, for 60 days where it will be painted and repaired before heading to the Staten Island homeport where it will join two submarines. It will continue to be refurbished while the City of New York rebuilds the pier.

The museum's compliment of planes have shrinkwrapped and lashed to the deck for the journey, but the most recent addition to the collection, the Concorde, will be heading to Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. That happens to be just below the old flight path the Concordes used to take on their transatlantic flights. The Concorde will be returned to Pier 86 at the completion of the renovations.

The Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum is expected to be reopened in time for Fleet Week in 2008.

UPDATE:
The Intrepid website says that the float out will be on Monday, not tomorrow. The move is timed to coincide with high tide to maximize the ability to float the ship out with the least amount of trouble.

Technorati: intrepid, uss intrepid, concorde, nyc, bayonne.